I'm sure we all know the Sunday golfer who shoots a decent game, breaking into the low 90's every so often. Then someone tells him that what he needs to improve his game is a set of the newest, most expensive clubs on the market. He promptly goes out and nearly bankrupts himself to buy them. Guess what? He's still shooting in the mid-90's. The moral of this story is that the new clubs may have made the player feel good but they didn't help his game very much because there's a lot more that goes into playing first-rate golf than expensive clubs. He may have felt good owning them, but it didn't lower his score.

Why do I tell you this? Because there's a connection to what is happening in today's information technology market. Businesses are investing heavily in new technology without really understanding what they're buying or why they're buying it. They don't realize that technology is only a tool to accomplish a task. It's a means to an end and it's not intended to have a life of its own.

Some people feel they have to invest heavily in new technology to stay competitive but they don't measure the cost implications against the payoff. It's what I call the FUD factor - Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. They're too often intimidated by the terminology, by the speed of change and by the technophiles who sell and have mastered the equipment.

If the new technology market is a jungle, one way to work out of this dilemma is to look at technology as a lion: big, powerful and awe-inspiring. To master the beast, today's savvy manager has to take control by being smarter and controlling the situation by choosing when and how to feed the hungry lion. If managers don't capture the energy, vitality and sheer force of the technology revolution, they stand a good chance of being ripped to shreds and eaten alive.

No one doubts the contribution that information technology has made to the contemporary business world. But it's also imposed an enormous need for intellectual discipline on those who manage the company purse strings. That means measuring the pros and cons of some of the common items in today's workplace. Take, for example, e-mail and voice mail. Both of these innovations improve the quality and frequency of communications and often help to expedite critical projects. But these two innovations can also be time-wasters when they're used for personal communication or as a substitute for face-to-face meetings.

There's a similar paradox with PC's themselves. While personal computers allow for efficient, creative and thoughtful work efforts, too many employees take the "personal" too literally, using the equipment for time-wasting and frivolous activity.

One of the most valuable contributions of technology to the business world is access to the Internet. Research, on-line ordering and customer contact are just the beginning of the Internet's value. At the same time, the Internet offers so many options, that unless employees are properly directed, they can spend a lot time searching out information that is irrelevant.

The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is an invaluable to tool for maintaining client content and vendor lists and the company calendar as well as serving to access e-mail from a remote location. The same goes for cell phones, whose value in emergencies or to return business calls expeditiously is unquestioned, but whose uncontrolled personal use hardly justifies the cost. Some phones are now sold with PDA capabilities built in.

So what's the answer? How do companies balance the need to incorporate new technology with the risk of overdoing it? To say that it takes discipline and common sense is probably an understatement. But there are more specific keys to success:

• Study the business needs for all expenditures.
• Apply technology only when necessary and only for employees who need it and will use it responsibly.
• Research the best options before purchasing.
• Train employees thoroughly in its usage.
• Develop policies that minimize personal use, including reimbursement if appropriate.
• Establish a way to measure return on investment before making the investment.

In other words, be the lion tamer, not the lion's victim.

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